


When Shadows Reunite With The Light

by originalginger



Category: Nikolai Series - Leigh Bardugo, The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alina is still having none of his shit, Background Genya/David, Book 1: King of Scars Spoilers, Darkles is still a bastard, Major Spoilers, My first question at the end of KoS was, Post-Book 1: King of Scars, Reunion Fic, Spoilers, Who's going to tell Alina?, and well here we are, background Mal/Alina, maybe some background Zoya/Nikolai we'll see, will be updating and adding tags as I go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:42:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25049359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/originalginger/pseuds/originalginger
Summary: Post King of Scars, MAJOR SPOILERS---------------“She deserves to know,” she repeated. “I’m not suggesting we get her involved. But she deserves to know... We owe her that.”
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	1. Telling Him

**Author's Note:**

> Uh hi so this is my first time writing fanfic since like 2010 so forgive me if it's a little rough. Also my sister stole my copy of KoS so there might be some discrepancies; feel free to correct me in the comments.  
> This fic will definitely be playing off of Alina and Darkles' dynamic, but I didn't use their ship tag because that ship ain't gonna sail in this fic.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Do you not know?"  
> "'Not know' about what?"  
> "About Alina."

The young man who had lived hundreds of years stared down the king, a smirk on his face.

“I can’t believe they let a bastard take the throne,” he said, trying to dig into old wounds from where he sat, chained to his chair.

The triumvirate looked at Nikolai, but he didn’t react, his face cold in a way few people rarely saw.

“What do you want, Darkling?”

“Don’t ask questions you know the answer to, _dog_.” Nikolai still didn’t rise to the bait. The Darkling sighed, disappointed at the lack of reaction.

“How did you return?” the king pressed. The shadow summoner quirked an eyebrow, levelled his gaze at him, and said nothing.

“Tell me,” Nikolai said harshly, approaching the seated figure, “how you returned.” Nikolai grabbed the Darkling’s collar, crouching so that pair were face to face. The Darkling was brought half to his feet, his wrists still bound to the chair.

“What makes you think I will tell you anything?”

Nikolai held his glare a moment longer, then released the man, who fell back to his seat in a nearly undignified fashion.

“Poor little Nikolai, playing king. All alone.”

“He’s not alone,” Zoya interrupted.

“Oh, you know what I mean, Nazyalensky.” Another smirk. “Or at least he does.”

“Actually, I don’t know what you mean,” Nikolai said. “Please, _enlighten_ us.”

“There’s no ring on your finger. No queen.” Still no reaction. The Darkling leaned forward. “I assume that’s why she isn’t here. Did she reject your proposal a second time?”

The four standing figures froze. David looked nervously to Genya, her red-hot gaze not moving from her former leader. Zoya kept her gaze on the Darkling as well, but stole a glance at the king. He was silent, the gears turning in his head.

“How did you–” Genya began but Nikolai cut her off.

“Do you not know?”

The question hung in the air. The triumvirate watched the king and the summoner stare each other down.

“'Not know' about what?” the Darkling asked, his smile gone and replaced with a glare.

“About Alina.”

“Forgive me, I’ve been _dead_ for a few years.”

The silence in the air turned heavy.

“Alina is dead.”

The Darkling stared at Nikolai.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

The Darkling gave a low, disbelieving laugh. “You’re lying. Alina isn’t dead.”

“She is dead. She gave everything she had to stop you. Including her life.”

For the first time, a crack of worry showed on the Darkling’s face.

“No. No that is a lie. How could she have died?”

“To stop the volcra. To try to destroy the fold. She gave every ounce of power she had.”

“There are new sun summoners,” Zoya said lowly, “But Alina is no more.”

The Darkling’s face was full of disbelief. Disbelief, and a small amount fear.

He accused them of lying, not because he knew any better, but simply because he didn’t want what he was hearing to be the truth.

Nikolai bowed his head, his face a mask of restrained sorrow. Genya and Zoya silently and carefully watched the king lie.

“She is gone, Darkling. And you, and the terrors you created, are to blame.” Nikolai leveled his gaze at the Grisha, who stared at him in furious disbelief. “I know you cared for her, in whatever way a thing like you can care.

“And I hope the guilt of knowing you killed her drowns you.”

With a last quick glare at the seated man, the king turned on his heel and exited the room. The triumvirate, throwing their own final glances at the Darkling, followed their king out.

Leaving the man of shadows to stare at the floor, the first tears he’d felt in years slowly welling in his eyes.


	2. A Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "She deserves to know."

“So. Who’s going to tell Alina?”

The question caused all arguments to drop, and the three others stared at Zoya.

The king and the triumvirate were having an impromptu meeting in the king’s quarters, away from prying eyes and formerly-dead eyes.

“No, not happening,” Genya said, her anger suddenly worse than before.

“Genya, she might be able to get him to talk –” David started, butGenya cut him off.

“She has been through enough. We can’t ask her to come back and get involved.”

“I agree with Genya,” Nikolai said. “Alina has made it clear she was done with this life, and we need to respect that.” Zoya wondered if the others could hear the undercurrent of sadness in his voice.

“All I’m saying is –”

“You’re saying,” Genya said, cutting off Zoya this time, “we should re-traumatize our friend on the off-chance that maybe that bastard will talk to her? He’s a master manipulator. There are too many ways this could go wrong.”

Zoya rolled her eyes. “It’s not like she can summon anymore.”

“That’s beside the point.” Nikolai’s voice was suddenly edged with authority. “We’re not dragging her into this.”

Zoya leveled a cold stare at her king.

“She deserves to know.”

Nikolai and Genya froze.

“She deserves to know,” Zoya repeated. “I’m not suggesting we get her involved. But she deserves to know he’s back. We owe her that.”

Genya’s eyes fell to floor while Nikolai held Zoya’s steely gaze.

“It would just hurt her,” Genya whispered after a moment of silence.

“She would get involved,” Nikolai said. “This is Alina we’re talking about. If we told her, she’d do what she could to help. Regardless of her own safety.”

“Well that’s her choice to make,” Zoya said, crossing her arms. Her two dissenters stared at her, then glanced at each other.

“...Who would we even send?” Nikolai asked. “This information is too sensitive to put into a letter. We can’t let anyone else know about this. And we can’t let anyone else know about her.”

“Send David. We’re not going to have him guarding the ass, and I doubt he’ll ask after him.” Zoya looked at David, whose mental cogs were still turning. “No offense.”

“None taken,” David said automatically.

“This is... This is crazy,” Genya said with exasperation.

“So is a man returning from that dead,” Zoya deadpanned.

“If he even is a man,” Nikolai muttered.

“He is.” Zoya’s voice held resolve. “I don’t know how he returned, but in the end, he’s still a man. We might have to worry about him coming back, but we can still kill him.”

“Well we shouldn’t kill him until we can be sure he’ll stay dead this time,” Nikolai said.

“Agreed.” Zoya squared her shoulders. “But right now we’re discussing Alina. We should tell her. Regardless of what we think her reaction will be, she deserves to know.”

A quiet fell for a few moments, the king and the tailor each weighing the consequences.

“Fine,” Genya finally said begrudgingly. Nikolair glanced at her, then looked back to Zoya with defeat in his eyes.

“David, are you alright with going to see her?” Nikolai asked. David nodded. Nikolai sighed.

“Fine.”


	3. Telling Her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "He's back."

The young wife sat on the porch, watching the children play in the yard. She smiled. It was a bit ironic that even after losing her abilities, she was still able to bring light into the lives of the young orphans.

“Miss! Miss!” a little boy shouted, running to her from the gate of the orphanage where a group had been playing.

“What is it Kona?”

“There’s a carriage coming! A fancy carriage!” She stood up to look, her brow creasing with concern.

“Kona,” she said, using warmth to hide the worry in her voice. “Can you fetch me Mr. Renav?” The little boy nodded and dashed off into the house.

Mrs. Renav, as she was currently known, went inside the house herself, if only to put a window pane between herself and the carriage that was slowly pulling into view. She heard her husband’s steps quickly descend the stairs.

“Were we expecting anyone?” he asked quietly, coming to stand beside her.

“No.” Her voice was low.

She felt the adrenaline pump through her veins as her fight-or-flight instinct kicked in. She knew if it came down to it, even if she no longer had the powers that made her a saint, she would choose fight.

The carriage pulled to a gentle stop in front of the orphanage, and a scraggly man in a purple kefta emerged. The young couple each let out a small sigh of relief.

Mrs. Renav walked out to greet the visitor, a smile already on her face. David, to his credit, looked happy to see her too.

He also looked a bit nervous, but he’d always been a bit awkward so she knew shouldn't let it worry her. He was here without Genya though, and she felt the unease slowly pool in her gut.

“It’s good to see you, David,” she said, enveloping him in a gentle hug.

“It’s good to see you, too, Al– Mrs. Renav.” Mr. Renav came up and shook the Grisha’s hand.

“How have you been?” the young wife asked.

“I’ve– oh I’ve been alright.” The nervousness became more pronounced. The young woman’s eyebrows fell low in concern.

“What is it?” she asked, her voice dropping in both volume and tone.

David looked down for a moment, then with an uncharacteristic resolve, looked her in the eye.

“I’ve been sent here to tell you something. We should find a private place to talk.”

~ ~ ¤ ¤ ¤ ~ ~

When the trio had settled into the parlor, tea set and the doors closed and locked, the couple looked to the Durast who nervously twisted his hands together.

The young husband opened his mouth to speak, but his wife laid her hand on his arm. Her gaze told him to be patient; clearly what the visiting Grisha was preparing to say weighed heavily on him.

After a few more moments of composing his thoughts, David looked up at the young woman.

“He’s back.”

The pair stared at him in frozen shock. There were dozens of people David could mean, but they knew right away who “he” was.

“What do you mean?” she asked quietly.

“He’s back. He’s not dead. We don’t know how. He won’t speak to us.” The woman's husband felt his anger simmering.

“And you’re here to ask _her_ to talk to him?”

“No, no–”

“Hasn’t she done enough for you people? Hasn’t she given –” The man was cut off by his wife’s hand landing on his chest. He hadn't realized he'd started to lean forward. He sat back and looked at her. This situation is too serious to start unnecessary fights, her gaze seemed to say.

“We’re not asking her to do anything,” David said, now that the other man was silent. “We just... Zoya said that you deserved to know.” The young woman looked to the floor, a hundred thoughts running through her mind. Her eyebrows folded with worry, but a corner of her mouth quirked up at the thought that it had been Zoya who had said she deserved to know.

A heavy silence fell for a moment.

“You said he won’t speak to you?” she finally asked.

“No,” David answered. “And- and we told him you’re dead.” The couple said nothing as they let that sink in.

“And he believed you?” the husband pushed.

“He said he didn’t, but we don't think it was because he actually knew it was a lie. It sounded like it was just denial.” Another heavy moment of silence. “He didn’t want to believe it was true.”

“And he won’t tell you how he did it? How he came back?” she asked.

“Ali–”

“Mal.” The woman interrupted her husband with a stony look.

“Do you think he would tell me?” she asked, turning back to the Grisha.

“I don’t know. I think maybe. But Nikolai, I mean the King, and Genya were very opposed to asking you to talk to him.”

“So you’re not asking me to do that.”

“No.”

A small stretch of silence.

“But that doesn’t mean I can’t offer to do so.”

“Alina, no,” Mal said angrily. “You decided you were done with that life.”

“Yes, because I thought there was nothing left I had to do,” she replied just as fiercely. “But if he’s back, then that means I failed. I swore I would see to it that he never harmed anyone again.” She glanced down. “If he’s back, he can cause more harm. That’s almost certainly his plan.”

“And what are you going to do? Stab him? He’ll just come back. You can’t even summon anymore,” her husband argued. The last sentence flicked a whip of anger inside her.

“No, but if I can get him to talk to me, then we can find out how he returned. And then we can find a way to ensure that the next time he dies, he won’t come back.” Mal saw the steel resolve settle into his wife’s eyes. He felt his own defiance stand up.

“I won’t go to Os Alta. I won’t enable this insanity.” Her gaze didn’t change.

“Then I will go without you,” she said. “But I am going.”

Alina stood.

“I’ll pack my bag. We’ll leave immediately.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alina gave a wry smile. “I didn’t come all this way not to see him.”

Alina looked at the Little Palace, a thousand memories coming to the surface as the carriage pulled up to her former home.

She kept the hood low over her face when they entered the building. David had brought along a spare kefta to make it easier for her to go unnoticed. Alina felt emotions swirl in her as she had taken it, but gave no hesitation to putting it on.

And they did go unnoticed when they entered the Little Palace, at least for the most part. All the Grisha they passed bowed their heads in recognition to the Durast of the triumvirate, but very few spared any glances at the visitor walking behind him.

Alina had never been this ignored in the Little Palace. Even before she was a saint, she was the sun summoner, and people watched her every move. Part of her was relieved that no one was taking notice, and another part of her reveled in the anonymity. But there was a small, small part of her that was sad, though she attributed that to having to keep her hood and her eyes low and not being able to fully take in the bustling around her.

David led them to his personal workshop and once behind closed doors Alina pulled the hood of the kefta back from her head.

“I’ll go get the others,” David told her. “Lock the doors behind me. No one will think anything of it; I always keep the doors locked.” Alina nodded and moved to the door as he exited.

“Oh,” he said, turning around before Alina shut the door. “And don’t touch anything.”

Alina gave a small smile. “I won’t.”

With a nod, David left and Alina closed and locked the door behind him.

She looked around. David’s workshop was his standard brand of messy and Alina smiled to herself. David may be part of the governing triumvirate now, but he clearly hadn’t changed too much.

She kept her word and didn’t touch anything, but she did stroll through the room looking at the various objects on his workbenches. She recognized very few things and understood even fewer, but there was still a familiarity to it all that kindled a bit of warmth in her.

Ten or so minutes later, Alina heard the lock turn in the door and she looked to it to see Genya burst in. Alina gave Genya her brightest smile and Genya rushed over and grabbed her in a hug.

“It’s so good to see you,” the redhead said, squeezing tight.

“It’s good to see you, too,” Alina said. Her voice was a little strangled from the constriction of the hug, but she didn’t mind in the slightest. She looked over her friends shoulder as the other three entered the room.

Zoya looked at Alina almost passively, but only almost; there was a small bit of warmth in her eyes and it was shortly followed by a small smile.

Nikolai, on the other hand, smiled immediately, but it wasn’t his typical confident smile. His eyes told her he was happy to see her, but his loosely knitted eyebrows signaled that he was worried.

David closed and locked the door and the three walked over as Genya released Alina.

“Good to see you, Starkov.” Zoya quirked her mouth in a relaxed smile. Alina smiled in return.

“Good to see you, too, Nazyalensky.”

“Alina,” Nikolai said softly, taking her in a gentle hug when Genya finally stood to the side. Alina put her arms around him, saying nothing as he held her imperceptibly tighter.

The stood like that a moment until Zoya sighed pointedly.

“We do have things to discuss, you know,” she said.

“Right,” Alina said, breaking the hug. She pretended not to see the small bit of longing in Nikolai’s eyes. She also ignored the twinge of jealousy she saw in Zoya’s.

“So he’s back,” Alina said, addressing the group.

Zoya gave a short nod. “Yes, and he won’t tell us shit.”

“And you didn’t tell him I was coming?”

“Of course not,” Nikolai said. “If he knew, he’d demand to see you, and you’re under no obligation to.”

Alina gave a wry smile. “I didn’t come all this way _not_ to see him.”

“Alina, he’s still dangerous,” Genya said. “We might have him restrained and locked up, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t already planning something.”

“I know. But–” Alina took a breath, collecting her thoughts. “I need to see him. Speak to him.”

Genya laid a gentle hand on her friend’s shoulder.

“You don’t _need_ to do anything. He doesn’t have to know you’re alive.”

Alina sighed. “Fine, then let’s say that I _want_ to do those things.” Nikolai and Genya both looked at her with concern for her choice of words.

“I know he’s a monster, but I...” Alina paused to find the right words. “I need to do this. For my own peace of mind."

Her four friends exchanged worried glances with each other, but finally Zoya spoke.

“We’re concerned, but it’s your choice. You shouldn’t be in any danger.” Genya guffawed but Zoya pressed on. “But we will be right outside the door if you need us.”

Alina nodded and looked at each of her friends. Zoya was serious, David was nervous, Genya was apprehensive, and Nikolai was just plain worried.

“It’s time I faced the man I killed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in the update. Life's been a little crazy. Hope you enjoyed it! And yes, the next chapter will *finally* see the pair reunited. :)


End file.
